The above is the start of Blueberry Vodka. The picture was taken just 12 hours after I had pricked the berries then just added them to Vodka.

I read on the net it takes 3 weeks! I think that's I bit long and will sample mine after only one week.

Xmas day I will be cooking for a friend and this pains me as he is so squeamish and stuck in his ways about food. So a lot of the stuff I really wanted too eat is out. I will be reduced to cooking roast beef. Not that I mind too much, as I am very good at roasting meat and haven't had a good bit as cooked by myself in two years!

I will cook the beef the day before then just reheat slices in red wine gravy. He can choose all the vegetables and if he has any sense prepare them before I get round. Who on earth wants to do all that work on the day?

While I maybe a human dustbin I cannot abide Xmas pud. So, if I can be arsed I'm gonna do some muffins. He loves JD so I may well do some with that, chocolate and if I can find some at this time of year cherries.

Problem I find with berries grown outside the UK is that they tend to be less juicy. Cos of other counties dryer weather. Nice to know the UK still produces something of note other than Law, High tech weapons and rubbish pop music, but of course I digress.

The question is what are you having? I'd love to hear from you all. I know we have a very multi cultural bunch on here and I would be fascinated to know what you are all cooking. At Xmas time or indeed any other time of the year.

So what's new in the world of catering? Apparently chefs have become so bored with the constraints of normal herbs they are looking to cannabis for relief.Why not just stick to promoting other herbs usefulness? Why delve into the seedy underworld or drug dealers and abusers? Oh yeah, that's right because it's cool and nobody's done it for a while. Also Chefs tend to belong to the same underworld as drug dealers a lot are drug dealers and get high on their own supply(It's the stress you know)

I have for a long time had the power to munch my way through as much psychoactive greenery as I want, but I hardly ever have. It comes down to controlling your own high. Ingesting cannabis is more akin to LSD. You can stub out a joint and come back down to earth a lot quicker than if you ingest weed. If you eat enough of it you will be away with the fairies for considerably longer and depending on how mentally strong you are you could feel like you are never coming back!

Let's get one thing out of the way. Weed is not as harmless as people would lead you to believe. It encourages smoking, wastes your time and makes you feel unmotivated, is expensive, will put you in environments where you could come into contact with other harmful drugs and practices, while it may not be addictive I have seen regular abusers when deprived of it become irritable and will engage in crime and sell possessions just for a smoke. There are of course many more damning qualities to a drug that for the most part is connected with peace and love.

How it used to be done was to take the little used and lower in THC stalks and leaves from a crop and heat them very gently in butter. The resulting cannabutter could then be used to make cakes truffles etc. Trouble is this does not fit with today's healthy eaters. So I have been interested in just what chef's have been doing. I myself have only once really tried to get away from cakes and biscuits. I marinated a whole chicken with leaves and then roasted it. the flavour was nothing to shout about and I didn't get high.

Chefs seem to be using oil to trap the properties and flavours of cannabis and rather than disguise the taste with chocolate they are bringing it to the fore. Smoking food with it seems an obvious choice and some have even used it's ash. All hash does not have to have such large psychoactive properties. So some chefs are using plants with less or no THC in them. The seeds are another very versatile part of the plant and can be used in breads and pestos.

Plenty of scope then if you decide to do this in your own home.

It gives people who enjoy smoking it, but know they should give up. An alternative, and gives those who have never smoked a way to enjoy it.

One I was looking forward to as it has an award winning chef. Poppadums as you would expect, but goods signs as the lime pickle was homemade.Onion Bhaji. Light crisp and golden. Fried in clean oil.Rice. I had special fried. Quality rice used.Naan Bread. Crisp light and thinner than normal. Nice. We wanted all 4 varieties in one, but they limited us to just two. What we ended up with was filled with a fine donner meat type stuff. Again nice.

Then we get to our mains. Oh dear, My friends jalfrezi is about as hot as tomato soup! and as tasty. Even though he orders it vindaloo hot! He is not impressed.

My Lamb rogan should be medium, but again all I can think off is tom soup! The lamb is tender, but even if I forgive the lack of heat, a hard thing to do as we are eating curry! There is nothing aromatic spicy or really tasty.

A fine meal with average service in an old pub that still looks like a pub. Anyone making the transition from say, french cuisine would do well here. Those that only eat mild curries, but want to try others would be happy. The food had a level of refinement you don't find with this type of fare, but Indian food is peasant food and I would rather suffer cheap rice and greasy bhajis and get a flavoursome spicy meal that I get with all other curry houses.